In this paper, the extended Resource Renting Problem (RRP/extended) is presented. The RRP/extended is a time-constrained project scheduling problem, in which the total project cost is minimised. In the RRP/extended, this total project cost is determined by a number of extra costs, which are defined in this paper. These costs are based on the costs that are used in the traditional Resource Renting Problem and the Total Adjustment Cost Problem. Therefore, the RRP/extended represents a union of these two problems. To solve the RRP/extended, a scatter search is developed. The building blocks of this scatter search are specifically designed for the RRP/extended. We introduce two crossovers and an improvement method. The efficiency of these building blocks will be shown in the paper. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis is presented in which the five costs have diverse values.

When scheduling projects under resource constraints, assumptions are typically made with respect to the resource availability. In resource scheduling problems important assumptions are made with respect to the resource requirements. As projects are typically labour intensive, the underlying (personnel) resource scheduling problems tend to be complex due to different rules and regulations. In this paper, we aim to integrate these two interrelated scheduling problems to minimise the overall cost. For that purpose, we propose an exact algorithm for the project staffing with resource scheduling constraints. Detailed computational experiments are presented to evaluate different branching rules and pruning strategies and to compare the proposed procedure with other optimisation techniques.

The `smart city' label is internationally used by cities, researchers and technology providers with different meanings. As a popular concept it is widely used by city administrators and politicians to promote their efforts to prepare their cities for the future. There are decent definitions for what a smart city is, but it is much harder to find a trustworthy description of what it takes to become a smart city and how a city administration is impacted by that effort. This paper sets out to investigate how a city, aspiring to become a `smart city', can manage its internal organization to realize that ambition. Specifically, it describes the case of the City of Ghent, Belgium, and the key challenges it has been facing in its ongoing efforts to be a smart city. Based on in depth interviews with city representatives six key challenges for smart city realization were identified and tested with a panel of representatives from five European cities that are in the process of becoming a smart city. The study contributes to a more professional pursuit of the smart city concept and elaborates the academic body of knowledge on smart city development, as an instance of IT-enabled transformation in public services.

Due to the adoption of more and more complex incentive contract structures for projects, designing the best contract for a specific situation has become an increasingly daunting task for project owners. Through the combination of findings from contracting literature with knowledge from the domain of project management, a quantitative model for the contract design problem is constructed. The contribution of this research is twofold. First of all, a comprehensive and quantitative methodology to analyse incentive contract design is introduced, based on an extensive review of the existing literature. Secondly, based on this methodology, computational experiments are carried out, which result in a set of managerial guidelines for incentive contract design. Our analysis shows that substantial improvements can often be attained by using contracts which include incentives for cost, duration as well as scope simultaneously. Moreover, nonlinear and piecewise linear formulae to calculate the incentive amounts are shown to improve both the performance and robustness across different projects.

A digital transformation is felt in every fibre of the organisation. In order to deal with the challenges that come with such a transformation initiative, one-off point solutions are not enough, but a more systemic, architecture-driven approach is needed. What does digital transformation mean for the enterprise architect? Through a multiple case study approach, this research aims to gain insights into the changing role of enterprise architects in a digital transformation context, as well as to identify the new challenges and opportunities arising in this regard. Today, enterprise architects are at a crossroads: the digital transformation projects in their organisations have rendered them more valuable. However, the key question is whether they will focus on enabling and support, or whether they will move one step beyond, leading the way, becoming true opportunity architects.

This paper investigates to what extent internal R&D efforts and different types of external knowledge sources jointly affect innovation performance of firms in emerging economies. Based on a survey about external knowledge sourcing activities of Chinese innovative firms, we categorize external knowledge sources into four groups: science-based partners, horizontal connections, value chain partners, and technology service providers. We find that both internal R&D activities and external knowledge sourcing have a positive effect on firms' innovation performance. Strong internal R&D capabilities also increase the effect of sourcing from value chain partners and horizontal connections, but we do not find support for complementarity between internal R&D and collaborations with universities and research labs. These findings jointly suggest that the mixture of different types of external knowledge partners in combination with internal R&D capabilities is crucial in understanding the role of open innovation in emerging economies.

This paper presents a new solution approach to solve the resource-constrained project scheduling problem in the presence of three types of logical constraints. Apart from the traditional AND constraints with minimal time-lags, these precedences are extended to OR constraints and bidirectional (BI) relations. These logical constraints extend the set of relations between pairs of activities and make the RCPSP definition somewhat different from the traditional RCPSP research topics in literature. It is known that the RCPSP with AND constraints, and hence its extension to OR and BI constraints, is NP-hard. The new algorithm consists of a set of network transformation rules that removes the OR and BI logical constraints to transform them into AND constraints and hereby extends the set of activities to maintain the original logic. A satisfiability (SAT) solver is used to guarantee the original precedence logic and is embedded in a metaheuristic search to resource feasible schedules that respect both the limited renewable resource availability as well as the precedence logic. Computational results on two well-known datasets from literature show that the algorithm can compete with the multi-mode algorithms from literature when no logical constraints are taken into account. When the logical constraints are taken into account, the algorithm can report major reductions in the project makespan for most of the instances within a reasonable time.

Despite the recognized value that mobile BI (m-BI) brings to firms, our understanding of the use of m-BI and its determinants are limited. In this study, we suggest that m-BI system quality characteristics may be among the factors that influence m-BI use. Yet, in the information systems (IS) literature there is mixed support for the relationship between system quality and system use at the individual level. Given there is research suggesting that engaged users are an indication of the technology's success, we believe that ‘engagement' may be the key to understanding the relationship discrepancy between system quality and use. To address this gap, we conducted a quantitative study of key informants who use m-BI, to understand what the key m-BI capabilities are and other success dimensions perceived as important by users. The results indicate that m-BI system quality attributes affect m-BI use indirectly through engagement, with this finding contributing to understanding of the complexity of IS use in mobile technologies

Companies increasingly realise that the strength of supply chain management not only lies in cost reductions and efficiency improvements, but also in driving profitable growth. We identify, based on the literature, the ‘7 Cs of supply chain management': Connect, Create, Customise, Coordinate, Consolidate, Collaborate and Contribute. These ‘7 Cs' are essential categories of supply chain practices that help companies grow by offering new, different, more and better products and services to (potentially new) markets. Case research in 16 European companies provided evidence of all except one practice (Contribute), thus illustrating the strategic importance of supply chain management.

The literature in operations management has not kept up with the growing complexity of and opportunities offered by global production networks. Managers need new tools to cope with this complexity. We propose one that is based on a model that delayers the global plant network into a set of subnetworks on the basis of complexity and proprietary information in the products they produce and production processes they use to produce them. This allows examining whether each subnetwork is congruent—i.e., has an appropriate manufacturing mission and the competencies that it would need to carry it out. We apply this tool to analyze the global production networks of five companies and illustrate its usefulness in performing periodic audit of the global production network and identifying potential strategic anomalies that deserve attention.

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